More than 300 dead in massive Chilean earthquake

Deutsche Presse-Agentur Santiago Chilean authorities
were assessing the damage from a massive earthquake
that killed more than 300 people, as Asian nations braced
Sunday for the resulting tsunami that was still racing
across the Pacific Ocean.
Hundreds of people were missing and feared trapped under
the rubble of buildings that buckled under the force of the 8.8
magnitude quake, the strongest to hit the South American
nation since 1960.
The earthquake occurred at 3:34 am (0634 GMT) Saturday,
some 90 kilometres north-east of Concepcion, a city of
630,000 in Chile's central coastal region.
Significant damage was reported in the capital Santiago, 320
kilometres north of the epicentre, affecting buildings, roads
and closing the international airport.
Waves of 1.5 metres or less were reported in Hawaii, New
Zealand and Australia. Comprehensive coastal warnings were
issued in Japan, where the Chilean tsunami was expected
Sunday afternoon with a height of up to 3 metres, and coastal
residents on the Philippines Pacific shores fled for high ground
in fear of the waves.
Some coastal areas of Chile were quickly struck by a post-
quake wave, devastating some communities.
A wall of water swept across the Chilean island of Robinson
Crusoe, 670 kilometres off the coast. Three people were
reported missing on the island.
President Michelle Bachelet declared a state of disaster in the
worst-hit regions south of Santiago. "I have no doubt that we
will make it through this," she said in a nationally televised
address.
Sebastian Pinera, who takes over from her as head of state on
March 11, appealed for solidarity.
The death toll rose throughout Saturday, reaching more than
300 by sundown. Authorities warned that more fatalities were
likely.
In Conception, 150 people were feared trapped in a fallen, 14-
storey apartment block.
"From the street we can hear the screaming of those who
were caught under the new, 14-floor building," one man said
looking at the pile of rubble.
There were reports of unrest in one Santiago neighbourhood
over shortages of water and power outages.
Santiago's international airport was ordered closed to incoming
and outgoing flights for at least three days, with a collapse
reported in the terminal building. The city's underground rail
network was also closed.
Overturned cars littered motorway flyovers, which buckled and
crumbled during the quake.
Power lines were down, water supplies were cut and burst gas
pipes raised fears of explosions. Internet communications were
disrupted and mobile phone networks badly damaged.
In Concepcion, damage was widespread. The offices of the
region government were reported to have been destroyed,
and the walls of the city's prison collapsed, with hundreds of
convicts reported to have escaped.
Chilean television showed footage of collapsed hospitals,
burning buildings and wrecked bridges. Modern, high-rise
buildings in Santiago were relatively unscathed by the quake
and the scores of aftershocks.
With Chile's prosperity and seismic history, the country has for
decades required new construction to conform to earthquake-
zone engineering standards.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon offered "rapid assistance"
if sought by Chile. In Washington, President Barack Obama
offered to deploy US resources "should the Chilean people
need our help."
The quake was 50 times more powerful than the one that
claimed more than 200,000 lives on January 12 Haiti, said the
head of the University of Santiago's Seismological Institute,
Sergio Barrientos.
The worst earthquake to hit Chile occurred in 1960, when a
9.5-magnitude quake and tsunami claimed 6,000 lives.